Optimal placement of smart meters for fault detection in the distribution system

Abstract

This work presents a method that combines a power system analysis program and genetic algorithm to identify a faulty section in a typical medium distribution network with DGs based on the optimal placement of smart meters. The project consists of two main parts, the first part deals with the penetration of DG units into the simple radial system. In this part, the analytical optimization method is used for optimal placement of DG units and Backward/Forward method is used for the load flow analysis. The optimal locations and size of the DGs have been determined by minimizing the power distribution loss. After the penetration of DGs, the second part introduces a method for fault detection in the presence of DGs based on the measurement of smart meters. The GA (genetic algorithm) is used for optimal placement of smart meters. For each part, the proposed method was evaluated and tested using MATLAB software and Matlab_Simulink. Results show that the power losses of the system were reduced after the penetration of DG units. In addition to the improvement of the voltage profile and the stability of the system in general. For the second part, the results show that the fault locating method by the optimal number of meters has good efficiency and accuracy in detecting three-phase faults.